The Merlin star speaks to RadioTimes.com about his role in the new Sky Cinema thriller set against the backdrop of the Troubles. <\/p>
In brand new thriller Dead Shot<\/a> \u2013 which arrived on Sky Cinema and NOW last week \u2013 former Merlin star Colin Morgan stars as Irish paramilitary Michael, who is on the verge of retirement when his pregnant wife is brutally murdered by a British army soldier.<\/p>\n Based on an original screenplay by Top Boy creator Ronan Bennett and directed by brothers Tom and Charles Guard, it\u2019s a harrowing film that takes place during the height of the Troubles in 1975, following Michael as he embarks on a revenge mission that sends him to the heart of IRA operations in London.<\/p>\n When Morgan first got his hands on the \u201cpage-turning\u201d script, he was struck by a number of things, not least the contradictions inherent in his character, and he was especially won over by a certain ambiguity regarding who the audience should be rooting for.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a Northern Irish guy, you think I\u2019d be biased to one side, but it\u2019s absolutely seeing both sides of this tale and this drama,\u201d he tells RadioTimes.com<\/a> in an exclusive interview. \u201cAnd so it says quite a lot that I was kind of on both camps, I think that\u2019s quite an achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cContradictions are the main thing I look for,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou see somebody in a cause that some men were drawn into in the late \u201960s and early \u201970s in Northern Ireland, particularly in the border counties. And I\u2019m wondering, if I was born around that time would I have been any different? Might the times have dictated what I needed to do to survive as a man?<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the things that are compelling to me\u2026 he wants to be a dad, he wants to survive his future. At the very beginning of the film it feels like he\u2019s just about to begin the rest of his life, he\u2019s left the cause behind, and it just gets taken away from him in a second.\u201d<\/p>